LSU coach Les Miles says video purchased as part of a controversial scouting package was necessary so he could see potential players in action.

Miles, speaking in the wake of an NCAA ruling that resulted in a one-year probation of the Tigers and amid questions centering on the recruiting services, said contrary to an ESPN "Outside the Lines" report, video received as part of the package was of value.

"What I need to have is film," Miles said Thursday, according to The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. "Because we make all the decisions ourselves on whether the guy's good enough to play, nobody else. As long as they give us the video, that's all we really need."

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Les Miles says a recruiting service held value thanks partly to video of Zach Mettenberger, a junior college quarterback who has played for Georgia and committed to LSU in December.
An ESPN review of video-scouting reports purchased by LSU last fall from talent scout Willie Lyles found they contained highlights of players who already were playing Division I football at other programs and poor-quality, full-game shoots that did not isolate or identify any players at all.

The analysis of the video footage obtained through a public-records request concluded the information likely would be of little use during the recruiting process.

But Miles countered the report, saying thanks partly to video of a junior college quarterback who has played for Georgia and who committed to LSU in December that the service played a role in his recruiting efforts and wasn't worthless.

"The ones I saw on Zach Mettenberger, they weren't," Miles, talking during a promotional tour stop in Covington, La., said of the junior college transfer to-be. "I can't tell you that I saw that it was exactly from Lyles' database. For me, I require that the country's covered, and I require that I can watch film and that I can see the guys we're going to recruit. As long as that's done, I'm pretty happy about it."